Airbnb Answers: Pricing tools that drive host success

You asked: Can Airbnb offer hosts more flexibility and options to set our pricing?

Leading up to the last Host Q&A, you asked for more flexibility with your pricing options. We went straight to the team that plans and builds these tools to see what’s on the horizon. What we learned was surprising. It turns out we’ve built solutions for much of what you’re asking for, but lots of hosts don’t know about or use the pricing settings available. We also found out that sometimes offering certain types of discounts harms rather than helps your business. Intrigued? We were too.

To make sure you have the latest insights on pricing, let’s take a look at what your options are and how your feedback influences what we build.

Current pricing options

You specifically asked for the ability to set different prices according to a guest’s length of stay, or based on the days of the week (for example, charging a different price for middle of the week vs. weekend stays). We actually have tools that help you do both! You can offer a discount for stays longer than a week or a month, and you can set up custom weekend pricing.

You also asked about charging guests based on the number of beds they use, rather than the number of guests staying in the listing. While we understand that more beds used means more linens to clean, it’s sometimes difficult for guests to anticipate how many beds they’ll use at the time of booking. For example, not every listing describes if beds are queen sized or double, how many sleeper sofas there are, or how the beds are arranged in a room. Some guests may want to see the place before deciding if they’ll share a double bed with a friend or sleep on the pull-out couch. However, guests can accurately and confidently say how many people will be staying, and you can charge an extra guest fee to account for that. If the cost of cleaning and check-in for shorter stays is a concern, you can add cleaning fees to offset those costs.

How host feedback is shaping our work

Your feedback shows us where things aren’t working for you, and where we can do better. Based on what you’ve told us, we’re focusing our efforts on making every tool more accessible and intuitive. And we’re helping hosts understand how pricing tools work together, which rules take priority when multiple rules overlap, and how to use the tools you have for maximum benefit to you.

When it comes to building new pricing tools, we try to account for a multitude of host preferences while keeping things simple enough for guests to still want to book your space with Airbnb. To do this, we solicit host feedback, test new ideas, and notice what happens to bookings when we add new options.

Here’s a little insight into how we test and pass along our learnings to you: Sometimes we can anticipate reliable opportunities to boost your earnings. For example, you may have seen insight messages on your calendar and emails highlighting discount opportunities for specific dates that would otherwise go unbooked. When you apply these discounts, we highlight to travelers the value you’re offering and that attracts bookings.

Alternatively, sometimes we find that less is more—like in a recent test in which hosts added discounts for 3-6 night stays in areas we noticed travelers were searching for accommodation, and it turned out the guests who booked those discounted spaces would likely have booked the listing at the regular price for the same duration. It’s these types of insights that we pass along to you in how we build and what we recommend.

You always have control over the price you set for your space. And we’re committed to sharing what we learn about pricing best practices. We’re excited that Airbnb offers competitive pricing flexibility for you, a simple booking experience for your guests, and the promise that we’ll continue to listen to your ideas about how to make pricing even better.

In the latest Host Q&A, CEO and Head of Community Brian Chesky answered top-voted questions during a livestream event. For questions he didn’t have time to address, we’ve introduced Airbnb Answers. Want to ask more? We’ll let you know in Airbnb Updates when the question platform will open for the upcoming June 27th Host Q&A.

Re: Airbnb Answers: Pricing tools that drive host success

Being able to set seasonal pricing and holiday pricing would be great option. Having to go in and set to/from dates with small blocks of holiday dates/rates for Memorial Day, Labor Day, Independence Day is time consuming especially when you have more than one listing.

Re: Airbnb Answers: Pricing tools that drive host success

I would like pricing that can be adjusted for Public Holidays. As a seasonal location, the long weekends attract more demand so get better prices. It isn't really practical to have instant book and mark every public holiday every time the calendar ticks over another day. While I am at it, how about the booking time horizon being able to be 2 years not just 1 year?

Re: Airbnb Answers: Pricing tools that drive host success

Circa 2011, there was a feature in which a guest could ‘last minute book.’ They would state the price they could pay, area they wanted to stay and hosts could ‘accept’ the bid if they chose. I think check in had to be within 24 hours. It meant hosts could fill a room that was otherwise empty and guests could potentially get a deal if plans fell through. Any plans to bring that back?

Re: Airbnb Answers: Pricing tools that drive host success

I would like to set minimum nights stay according to time of year . I usually have 4 nights but as I want to fill up in winter I have gone down to three which means if people book ahead for summer they can book for three nights which I don’t want .

I would also like to seasonally adjust prices once and not have to go into the calandra to change prices on soecific dates months

If you have a suggestion for an improvement to the functionality or a question on this topic you would like Airbnb leadership to respond to, there will be the opportunity to submit them prior to the upcoming Q&A.

We will let all hosts know when it’s open to your ideas and questions! You can also share feedback with Airbnb at any point on this link: www.airbnb.com/feedback.

Re: Airbnb Answers: Pricing tools that drive host success

Most of the time we are happy to offer flexible cancellation conditions.

However there are a few significant events in our destination at different times throughout the year when accom is in demand and people like to stay for 5 to 7 nights. We would like to be able to enforce strict cancellation conditions at those times as we will not be able to fill those rooms at the last minute if someone cancels their 5 to 7 night booking the day before they arrive.

Re: Airbnb Answers: Pricing tools that drive host success

I disagree with what you've said about guests not knowing how many beds they require when booking. The majority of guests would know who will be sleeping with who. I want guests to be able to select how many guests and beds they need on their booking/enquiry form. In your 'Sleeping Arrangements' it states what type of bed is in each room. Surely next to the drop down box of how many guests, you could also have a drop down box of how many beds? I have a house that has 6 bedrooms but if a guest books for 6 guests I assume they only need 3 rooms, when a lot of the time they are singles wanting a room each. This is very frustrating to guests when I inform them of the extra charge to use all rooms.

Re: Airbnb Answers: Pricing tools that drive host success

Season variations are significant and relate to minimum stay, check in and out times, discounts and pricing for peak periods. It would be nice to set each month up to 12 months in advance and know that we could change one month and it not seem to have a flow on effect to the rest of the calendar. Is Xmas bookings.